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BLOOMINGTON — Someone recently asked Lin Loring, IU’s women’s tennis coach since 1977, why he had stayed at Indiana so long. Why, after so many years, had he never considered moving to another program?

“My dad was career Navy. We moved every 2 ½ years. We got to Bloomington and I was kind of tired of moving,” Loring said. “It was one of the reasons I kind of put down some roots and stayed here.”

Those roots proved permanent, but even a coaching career spanning five decades must end eventually. For Loring, that moment came Thursday, when he announced his retirement via a news release.

“Lin Loring has enjoyed one of the most exemplary careers in the storied history of IU Athletics,” Fred Glass, Indiana's athletics director, said in that release. “The championships, the record win totals, the unassailable record of academic excellence all speak for themselves, but the impact and influence he has had on the lives of his students over the course of five decades at IU is truly extraordinary.”

Loring retires from Indiana as collegiate women’s tennis’ all-time wins leader, with 846, and a laundry list of career accomplishments.

His teams won 16 Big Ten titles, including 12 undefeated conference seasons. In 1992, no Indiana player lost a match in league play. Loring won an Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national championship in 1982 — to this day, IU’s only national title in a women’s sport.

He enjoyed a 100 percent graduation rate among athletes who exhausted their eligibility at IU, and he was named national coach of the year twice. No other Division I women’s tennis coach has 800 career wins. Loring’s win total at Indiana alone is 804.

Indiana hosted a men’s and women’s tennis reunion last fall, including in its program a speech from its longtime women's coach. When Loring took the stage, he was met with a minutes-long round of applause.

Indiana AD Fred Glass: “Lin Loring has enjoyed one of the most exemplary careers in the storied history of IU athletics."(Photo: Mike Dickbernd)

“Truthfully, I don’t want to sound corny but I haven’t really paid attention to those (accomplishments),” Loring said. “The important thing to me has been the interaction with the players.”

When Loring arrived at Indiana, he found himself surrounded by what he called “a wonderful treasure chest of knowledge to walk into” — legendary coaching figures like Bob Knight, Doc Counsilman, Hobie Billingsley and Sam Bell.

His decision to retire, 40 seasons later, came after a recruiting trip late last month, when Loring realized the grind of national travel had worn him down.

Now, he’ll hand his program off to longtime assistant Ramiro Azcui, who has been with IU since 1992. He has helped Loring guide the Hoosiers to five of those Big Ten titles, and 16 of Loring’s 28 national tournament appearances.

“I know all the girls are gonna be really excited, and all the alumni will be very excited too that Ramiro’s moving in,” he said. “We won’t miss a beat as a program.”